10/9/08

Timothy update

As I type, Jonathan is at Children's spending the night with Timothy (they're keeping him purely as a precaution since he already has a cold/cough and they stuck a scope down his throat today; he's doing just fine and will come home first thing in the morning). Isn't my hubby wonderful to give me a break? I plan on popping the other 4 in the bed in just a minute but wanted to get the word out. Good news is that his airway issue is stable, in fact, a little better than it was in May. No need to worry about his airway unless he starts to show signs of distress. They will continue to follow him with bronchoscopies until he reaches the point where they're able to pass a normal-sized bronchoscopy scope down his throat. His next bronchoscopy his dr wanted him to have in 6 months but that's too close to my due date so we're going to schedule one the end of January/early February. As for his hearing, that's the not-so-good news. Thankfully, his right ear tested with completely normal hearing. His left ear, however, showed mild to moderate hearing loss; a kind that is permanent, something he was probably born with and most likely not related to his fluid issues. He will need a hearing aid for his left ear. No surprise there, right? What really took me off guard today, though, was the fact that it is permanent which means he will have to have a hearing aid for the rest of his life. The impression I rec'd from them before was that it if he needed hearing aid(s), it would be a temporary situation. Because the other kiddies have normal hearing (although they way they yell at each other all the time, it makes me wonder!?!), the chances of this being genetic and therefore something the new baby might have is slim. Unfortunately, this is a type of hearing loss without a known cause. If we don't know how he got it, then we don't know if the new baby can have it. At the next bronchoscopy they will also do a CT scan of his ears just to make sure it is not a structural issue. The chances of that, though, are next to nothing. We will probably never know why Timothy has hearing loss. So, we just have to learn to adjust to life with constant appointments with audiology and living with hearing aids. With a hearing aid in, he should develop a normal speech/language pattern (he's already babbling which is great). The next step is the hearing aid fitting session where they make a mold of his ear which will be in the next week or so; then it's 3-4 weeks after that before he'll get his actual hearing aid which he should have in place by Thanksgiving or so. Since he's constantly growing, his mold will constantly have to be replaced. No need to learn sign language or anything like that, although I'm sure it wouldn't hurt. Just speak mostly on his right side until we get the hearing aid in and get him adjusted. I think that's about it but my brain is very fried. If you have a question, drop a comment and I'll try to post the answer tomorrow.